Synopsis for "Next Avengers (Part 1)"

Immortus is on his knees before five unidentified figures. He pleads before them that he was there when they were born and every moment of their lives and now he will watch them die. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning kills him. The five figures are revealed to be children of the Avengers.

In Avengers Tower, Rogers has assembled Bucky, Thor, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman and Iron Man to be their next group of Avengers, all for their great qualities. As the team begins to socialize on their doubts and insecurities whether can they work together, Iron Man asks Rogers who is going to run the team. The latter answers that it will be Maria Hill, who asks if this is the entire team, as someone is missing. Then suddenly, Kang the Conqueror appears to deliver a dire warning, only for Thor to blast him out of the building.

As the Avengers then go out to confront him on a rooftop, Kang produces out an egg-shaped device that Iron Man recognizes; it is a dark matter accelerator, a doomsday device he hasn't even built yet, capable of inverting the entire city of New York. Kang then cuts to the chase and explains that in the future, Ultron has destroyed the Avengers and conquered the Earth. Only their future children will stop him, only to rule the world themselves, having no morals because their parents were not there to guide them. They need to go to the future and stop them before they can do that. This revelation shocks the Avengers; Hawkeye even asks Kang why can not he stop Ultron.

The reply is that he has tried twenty times. He then leaves through a portal, telling them that they must obtain time travel technology on their own to stop this terrible future from ever occurring. If they succeed, he will never attempt to menace them again. But he promises this: he won't put his destiny into the hands of the Avengers or their children, which will compel him to activate the device the next time they meet. Iron Man tries insisting that they don't have a time machine; Kang responds that they will when their team is complete.

As soon as Kang is gone, Spider-Man asks Iron Man if he even has a time machine. The answer is no, for if he had one, he could've prevented any of their recent, terrible events from ever occurring but become no better than Kang himself. Hawkeye further asserts that Kang shouldn't have told them that they'd even end up having kids. Iron Man then goes into a hypothesis that time and space are actual organisms, which means that past and future is happening now. Even if the future isn't their problem, Thor asserts that they must go to it to save their children. The problem is coming up with a time machine and finding an expert on not only time but interdimensional travel that would not damage reality. The only people they know, such as Doctor Doom, who can't be trusted or Mr. Fantastic, who is not available, have one. However, Wolverine knows the right person for this job.

In the future, Kang arrives to report the success of his mission to an elderly Hulk and a Spider-Girl.

Solicit Synopsis

THE HEROIC AGE IS HERE! There came a day! A day unlike any other...where two of Marvel's top creators teamed up for the very first time to create a bombastic new monthly Marvel comic that not only ushers in the Heroic Age of Marvel Comics but unleashes onto the world the most blockbuster Avengers team ever! Who will answer the call? And will they assemble just in time...because Kang the Conqueror is here from the future. And wait till you find out why…! Bonus back up feature: the oral history of the Avengers, part one. A brand new illustrated look at the Avengers in a way you have never seen before by series writer Brian Michael Bendis.

Notes

Also includes a prologue and first chapter to "Avengers Assemble: The Oral History of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Continues in New Avengers Vol 2 #1.

The Future in which this story featuring the Next Avengers does not appear to be the same reality as Earth-555326. The events of the Ultron War have played out very differently from how they did in the animated film.

This issue is reprinted in other comics and books, see references for more info.[1]